I was telling my boy Sonny the story of the hare and the tortoise (乌龟) . In the end I said, "Son, remember: Be slow and calm, and then you will win the race. Don't you think there's something to learn from the tortoise?"
Sonny opened his eyes wide, "Do you mean next time when I'm entering for the 60-metre race, I should wish that Billy, Tony and Sandy would all fall asleep halfway?"
I was surprised, "But the tortoise didn't wish that the hare would fall asleep!"
"He must have wished that, "Sonny said. "Otherwise how could he be so foolish to race with the hare? He knew very well that the hare ran a hundred times faster than he himself did. "
"He didn't have such a wish, "I insisted (坚持) . "He won the race by perseverance (毅力) , by pushing on steadily. "
Sonny thought for a while. "That's a lie, " he said. "He won it because he was lucky. If the hare hadn't happened to (碰巧) fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he'd never have won the race. That's for sure. "
I gave up. Today's children are not like what we used to be. They're just hopeless,
